Greta Thunberg
Author of No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference
About the Author
Image credit: Thunberg while speaking to the EU Parliament, Strasbourg, April 2019 / Photo by European Parliament
Works by Greta Thunberg
Connectedness: An Incomplete Encyclopedia of the Anthropocene (STRANDBERG PUBL) (2020) 11 copies, 1 review
Cambiemos el mundo 2 copies
Climate Crisis: Extinction 1 copy
Klímakönyv 1 copy
Associated Works
Klimaat kantate : for soprano solo, children's choir, mixed choir and ensemble : 2020 — Associated Name — 2 copies
L'assoluta necessità. In risposta ad António Guterres e Greta Thunberg (2020) — Associated Name — 1 copy
Change Is Coming, Teen Climate Change Activist Greta Thunberg Tells Denver Crowd — Associated Name — 1 copy
Thunberg To UN, 'High Expectations' To Deliver On Climate Change — Associated Name — 1 copy
Thunberg To Trump, 'Listen To The Science' — Associated Name — 1 copy
Greta Thunberg To Congress, 'Don't Listen To Me. Listen To The Scientists' — Associated Name — 1 copy
TEDTalks, Greta Thunberg-The Disarming Case to Act Right Now on Climate Change — Associated Name — 1 copy
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Thunberg, Greta
- Legal name
- Thunberg, Greta Tintin Eleonora Ernman
- Other names
- THUNBERG, Greta Tintin Eleonora Ernman
THUNBERG, Greta - Birthdate
- 2003-01-03
- Gender
- female
- Occupations
- activist (climate)
- Relationships
- Thunberg, Svante (father)
Ernman, Malena (mother) - Nationality
- Sweden
- Birthplace
- Stockholm, Sweden
- Associated Place (for map)
- Stockholm, Sweden
Members
Discussions
The Misogyny of Climate Deniers (and others) in Pro and Con (December 2019)
Reviews
I want to start this review by saying that my opinion of this book has nothing to do with my agreement or disagreement with the issues discussed. While I am all for protecting our environment and making the changes necessary, this belief did not make me like this little paperback collection of speeches. It also does not reflect my opinions on Greta herself.
My first issue with this book was the complete lack of sources. I realize that this is a collection of speeches, however, they are of a show more scientific nature and are being published as a book... in print. I think that with the publishing of the speeches as a book, citations needed to be added. Without them, it is hard to view things as credible facts. Even as speeches, anything presented as a fact really should come with a reference to where it was found. Her more recent speeches are better about this, as she often says where the information is from before she states a number. However, her earlier speeches are severely lacking in source material. This book is being marketed as non-fiction and science. As such, I was shocked by the lack of sources.
A few examples:
"...a number of leading climate scientists wrote that we have at most three years to reverse growth in greenhouse gases..." Who are these scientists? Where did this information come from? To not be 100% specific in a speech is one thing, but the sourcing should have been considered when making a book.
"If people knew that the scientists say that we have a 5 percent chance..." Again, which scientists? It is hard for me to believe information to be credible when a very specific number is thrown out with a vague reference to an unspecified group of scientists.
And these two examples are just on the first page. There are many facts thrown out with no real source. This may not bother some people, as it is a collection of speeches. But to me, it makes sense that someone who decides to publish a collection of their speeches (ones that are marketed as non fiction and science, and have numbers and facts loaded into them, I mean) and distribute it as a book would add sources to said book. Why did I have to search the data being presented as fact and
do a LOT of fact-checking while reading a book that is being marketed as nonfiction?
Another glaring issue with this is how hypocritical some of it is. She condemns activists who travel great distances because they are using valuable resources to travel. However, in a later speech, she lists off all of the different forms of traveling she has to do. To me, this seems hypocritical. Why condemn others for the thing you do?
"Wherever I Go I Seem to Be Surrounded By Fairy Tales" is one of the last speeches included in this book and it left me a little confused. On page 89, she states "...a 50 per cent chance of staying below a 1.5 degree C global temperature rise." However, page 92 (same speech) says "...to have a 67 per cent chance of staying below a 1.5 degree C global temperature rise.... Which is it? She gives the same date: 1 January 2018. She also gives the same amount of CO2 emissions left: 420 gigatonnes. So which percentage is it? This difference in numbers within the same speech, without any source listed, makes it hard to find the information credible.
As excited as I was to read this, and as much as I wanted to love it, it just didn't rub me the right way. show less
My first issue with this book was the complete lack of sources. I realize that this is a collection of speeches, however, they are of a show more scientific nature and are being published as a book... in print. I think that with the publishing of the speeches as a book, citations needed to be added. Without them, it is hard to view things as credible facts. Even as speeches, anything presented as a fact really should come with a reference to where it was found. Her more recent speeches are better about this, as she often says where the information is from before she states a number. However, her earlier speeches are severely lacking in source material. This book is being marketed as non-fiction and science. As such, I was shocked by the lack of sources.
A few examples:
"...a number of leading climate scientists wrote that we have at most three years to reverse growth in greenhouse gases..." Who are these scientists? Where did this information come from? To not be 100% specific in a speech is one thing, but the sourcing should have been considered when making a book.
"If people knew that the scientists say that we have a 5 percent chance..." Again, which scientists? It is hard for me to believe information to be credible when a very specific number is thrown out with a vague reference to an unspecified group of scientists.
And these two examples are just on the first page. There are many facts thrown out with no real source. This may not bother some people, as it is a collection of speeches. But to me, it makes sense that someone who decides to publish a collection of their speeches (ones that are marketed as non fiction and science, and have numbers and facts loaded into them, I mean) and distribute it as a book would add sources to said book. Why did I have to search the data being presented as fact and
do a LOT of fact-checking while reading a book that is being marketed as nonfiction?
Another glaring issue with this is how hypocritical some of it is. She condemns activists who travel great distances because they are using valuable resources to travel. However, in a later speech, she lists off all of the different forms of traveling she has to do. To me, this seems hypocritical. Why condemn others for the thing you do?
"Wherever I Go I Seem to Be Surrounded By Fairy Tales" is one of the last speeches included in this book and it left me a little confused. On page 89, she states "...a 50 per cent chance of staying below a 1.5 degree C global temperature rise." However, page 92 (same speech) says "...to have a 67 per cent chance of staying below a 1.5 degree C global temperature rise.... Which is it? She gives the same date: 1 January 2018. She also gives the same amount of CO2 emissions left: 420 gigatonnes. So which percentage is it? This difference in numbers within the same speech, without any source listed, makes it hard to find the information credible.
As excited as I was to read this, and as much as I wanted to love it, it just didn't rub me the right way. show less
"Acollection of articulate, forceful speeches made from September 2018 to September 2019 by the Swedish climate activist who was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.
Speaking in such venues as the European and British Parliaments, the French National Assembly, the Austrian World Summit, and the U.N. General Assembly, Thunberg has always been refreshingly—and necessarily—blunt in her demands for action from world leaders who refuse to address climate change. With clarity and unbridled show more passion, she presents her message that climate change is an emergency that must be addressed immediately, and she fills her speeches with punchy sound bites delivered in her characteristic pull-no-punches style: “I don’t want you to be hopeful. I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day. And then I want you to act.” In speech after speech, to persuade her listeners, she cites uncomfortable, even alarming statistics about global temperature rise and carbon dioxide emissions. Although this inevitably makes the text rather repetitive, the repetition itself has an impact, driving home her point so that no one can fail to understand its importance. Thunberg varies her style for different audiences. Sometimes it is the rousing “our house is on fire” approach; other times she speaks more quietly about herself and her hopes and her dreams. When addressing the U.S. Congress, she knowingly calls to mind the words and deeds of Martin Luther King Jr. and John F. Kennedy. The last speech in the book ends on a note that is both challenging and upbeat: “We are the change and change is coming.” The edition published in Britain earlier this year contained 11 speeches; this updated edition has 16, all worth reading.
A tiny book, not much bigger than a pamphlet, with huge potential impact." A Kirkus Starred Review, www.kirkusreviews.com show less
Speaking in such venues as the European and British Parliaments, the French National Assembly, the Austrian World Summit, and the U.N. General Assembly, Thunberg has always been refreshingly—and necessarily—blunt in her demands for action from world leaders who refuse to address climate change. With clarity and unbridled show more passion, she presents her message that climate change is an emergency that must be addressed immediately, and she fills her speeches with punchy sound bites delivered in her characteristic pull-no-punches style: “I don’t want you to be hopeful. I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day. And then I want you to act.” In speech after speech, to persuade her listeners, she cites uncomfortable, even alarming statistics about global temperature rise and carbon dioxide emissions. Although this inevitably makes the text rather repetitive, the repetition itself has an impact, driving home her point so that no one can fail to understand its importance. Thunberg varies her style for different audiences. Sometimes it is the rousing “our house is on fire” approach; other times she speaks more quietly about herself and her hopes and her dreams. When addressing the U.S. Congress, she knowingly calls to mind the words and deeds of Martin Luther King Jr. and John F. Kennedy. The last speech in the book ends on a note that is both challenging and upbeat: “We are the change and change is coming.” The edition published in Britain earlier this year contained 11 speeches; this updated edition has 16, all worth reading.
A tiny book, not much bigger than a pamphlet, with huge potential impact." A Kirkus Starred Review, www.kirkusreviews.com show less
Although this is a short book, it packs a very considerable punch. I greatly admire Greta Thunberg for her clarity of thought and focus on what is truly important. This collection of her speeches emphasises the crux of the climate emergency: we are swiftly running out of time to stop emitting greenhouse gases. Climate science demonstrates that we have used up most of our global carbon budget. If we go beyond it, large areas of habitable land will become uninhabitable, extreme weather will show more become typical, and the survival of human civilisation unlikely. This has been public knowledge for decades, yet action still isn't happening. Thunberg's speeches present these unpalatable facts in uncompromising terms. There is no verbiage about sustainability and green growth here, just stark facts. Several passages particularly stood out to me as particularly powerful:
As an indictment of capitalism, that could scarcely be more succinct or damning. Similarly:
I cannot imagine what it must be like for 2021's teenagers to look at the future. I remember learning about climate change in my own teens and realising the environmental destructiveness of neoliberal economics during my A-levels. Back then, the UK had a Labour government and during my undergraduate degree the Climate Change Act went through the UK parliament with cross-party support. Although I knew things were bad, I thought at the time they'd get better with environmental policy (which I was studying and wanted to work in). I remember writing an angry letter to Gordon Brown, then UK Prime Minister, saying the government should invest more in renewable energy. Since then global emissions have risen and risen, global temperature records have repeatedly been broken, and UK politics has got worse and worse. My hope has waned, as technologies that were supposed to save us remain perpetually ten years away from widespread adoption, consumption increases, and wealth inequality worsens. Global GHG emissions were supposed to peak in 2008, in 2012, in 2014, in 2018, and in 2020 but did not. My generation, the older millennials, have had at least some semblance of hope for the climate, whereas generation Z gets no such privilege. Not that it's great to have your hope ground down and your idealism worn into exhaustion and sadness, but all they've known is global climate emergency. Whereas I am enraged by twenty years of watching delays and ineffectual policies, Thunberg's rage has the sharp focus and clarity of youth. This penultimate speech, given to the UN General Assembly, is the most emotive and perhaps the most powerful in the collection:
It should not be up to children like Thunberg to say all of this. We adults are letting down future generations. My generation was also let down, but that is no excuse for our own inaction. Thunberg boils the climate emergency down to its essentials: the remaining carbon budget is a limitation within which the economy must function. Capitalism as it stands cannot function within such a quantitative limit, so capitalism must be replaced. We must stop burning fossil fuels. Increasing the wealth of a tiny minority must not be prioritised above the survival of billions. I had similar feelings reading 'No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference' as I did reading [b:This Is Not A Drill: An Extinction Rebellion Handbook|45308227|This Is Not A Drill An Extinction Rebellion Handbook|Extinction Rebellion|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1559314992l/45308227._SY75_.jpg|70036425]: horror at the reality of the situation coupled with flickers of hope that voices like Thunberg's are being raised. What she says cannot be ignored. show less
[To the UN Climate Change Conference] You are not mature enough to tell it like it is. Even that burden you leave to your children. But I don't care about being popular, I care about climate justice and the living planet.
We are about to sacrifice our civilisation for the opportunity of a very small number of people to continue to make enormous amounts of money. We are about to sacrifice the biosphere so that rich people in countries like mine can live in luxury. But it is the sufferings of the many which pay for the luxuries of the few.
As an indictment of capitalism, that could scarcely be more succinct or damning. Similarly:
[To UK parliament] I was fortunate to be born in a time and place where everyone told us to dream big; I could become whatever I wanted to. I could live wherever I wanted to. People like me had whatever we needed and more. Things our grandparents could not even dream of. We had everything we could ever wish for and yet now we may have nothing.
Now we probably don't even have a future anymore.
Because that future was sold so that a small number of people could make unimaginable amounts of money. It was stolen from us every time you said that the sky was the limit, and that you only live once.
You lied to us. You gave us false hope. You told us the future was something to look forward to. And the saddest thing is that most children are not even aware of the fate that awaits us. We will not understand it until it is too late. And yet we are the lucky ones. Those who will be affected the hardest are already suffering the consequences. But their voices are not heard.
I cannot imagine what it must be like for 2021's teenagers to look at the future. I remember learning about climate change in my own teens and realising the environmental destructiveness of neoliberal economics during my A-levels. Back then, the UK had a Labour government and during my undergraduate degree the Climate Change Act went through the UK parliament with cross-party support. Although I knew things were bad, I thought at the time they'd get better with environmental policy (which I was studying and wanted to work in). I remember writing an angry letter to Gordon Brown, then UK Prime Minister, saying the government should invest more in renewable energy. Since then global emissions have risen and risen, global temperature records have repeatedly been broken, and UK politics has got worse and worse. My hope has waned, as technologies that were supposed to save us remain perpetually ten years away from widespread adoption, consumption increases, and wealth inequality worsens. Global GHG emissions were supposed to peak in 2008, in 2012, in 2014, in 2018, and in 2020 but did not. My generation, the older millennials, have had at least some semblance of hope for the climate, whereas generation Z gets no such privilege. Not that it's great to have your hope ground down and your idealism worn into exhaustion and sadness, but all they've known is global climate emergency. Whereas I am enraged by twenty years of watching delays and ineffectual policies, Thunberg's rage has the sharp focus and clarity of youth. This penultimate speech, given to the UN General Assembly, is the most emotive and perhaps the most powerful in the collection:
I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean. Yet you all come to us young people for hope? How dare you!
You have taken away my dreams and my childhood with your empty words. And yet I'm one of the lucky ones.
People are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction. And all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!
For more than thirty years the science has been crystal clear. How dare you continue to look away, and come here saying that you are doing enough.
It should not be up to children like Thunberg to say all of this. We adults are letting down future generations. My generation was also let down, but that is no excuse for our own inaction. Thunberg boils the climate emergency down to its essentials: the remaining carbon budget is a limitation within which the economy must function. Capitalism as it stands cannot function within such a quantitative limit, so capitalism must be replaced. We must stop burning fossil fuels. Increasing the wealth of a tiny minority must not be prioritised above the survival of billions. I had similar feelings reading 'No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference' as I did reading [b:This Is Not A Drill: An Extinction Rebellion Handbook|45308227|This Is Not A Drill An Extinction Rebellion Handbook|Extinction Rebellion|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1559314992l/45308227._SY75_.jpg|70036425]: horror at the reality of the situation coupled with flickers of hope that voices like Thunberg's are being raised. What she says cannot be ignored. show less
Greta Thunberg is the bomb.
I first heard about Greta when she began school striking last year, but only, at first, as a curiosity (on the part of the press). It wasn't until her speech before the UK parliament that she got enough press that I was able to understand her story. When I read the speech in the Guardian, I was laughing - in the best way - at the sheer audacity, bravery, and brilliance, of a 16 year old standing before the august (HA!) body of British lawmakers and telling them show more that:
The UK is, however, very special. Not only for its mind-blowing historical carbon debt, but also for its current, very creative, carbon accounting.
and:
This ongoing irresponsible behaviour will no doubt be remembered in history as one of the greatest failures of mankind.
and my favorite:
Did you just hear what I said? Is my English okay? Is the microphone on? Because I'm beginning to wonder.
I handed the speech to MT and said You HAVE TO read this. It's written by a 16 year old Swedish girl whose first language isn't even English! (We who have lived our lives isolated on single language land masses - and yes, yes, Spanish, but it wasn't widespread when I was a kid - are always in awe of those of you who juggle multiple languages with ease, never mind speak it better than us natives.) I've been a following her in the news ever since and I just admire the hell out of her. I found this little collection of all her speeches up to and including her UK Parliament speech, on the bookstore counter, and snapped it up.
It's nothing fancy; just a small booklet containing all 11 of her speeches through 23 April 2019, and if read cover to cover (which I don't recommend), it's repetitive. But the message is powerful, and like it or not, it's dead-on accurate: our house is on fire; what we would never do to our own lawn, we're doing with impunity to the rest of the planet, and we're collectively living like a magic, 23rd-hour solution that will make everything ok again is going to miraculously fly out our asses.
Greta is making waves because she's 16 and she's the only one willing to stand in front of entire governments and actually say, with only a tiny bit more tact: you're all idiots and you're the generation that will always be known as those idiots who destroyed civilisation as we know it.
On a more first-world-problem note: this wonderful 16 year old was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize and even though she didn't win (and should have), I am still thankful I'm not a teen today. Life is hard enough as an adolescent, but now teens are nominated for Nobels; getting into Yale or Oxford suddenly isn't the acme of teen achievement any more. Yikes. show less
I first heard about Greta when she began school striking last year, but only, at first, as a curiosity (on the part of the press). It wasn't until her speech before the UK parliament that she got enough press that I was able to understand her story. When I read the speech in the Guardian, I was laughing - in the best way - at the sheer audacity, bravery, and brilliance, of a 16 year old standing before the august (HA!) body of British lawmakers and telling them show more that:
The UK is, however, very special. Not only for its mind-blowing historical carbon debt, but also for its current, very creative, carbon accounting.
and:
This ongoing irresponsible behaviour will no doubt be remembered in history as one of the greatest failures of mankind.
and my favorite:
Did you just hear what I said? Is my English okay? Is the microphone on? Because I'm beginning to wonder.
I handed the speech to MT and said You HAVE TO read this. It's written by a 16 year old Swedish girl whose first language isn't even English! (We who have lived our lives isolated on single language land masses - and yes, yes, Spanish, but it wasn't widespread when I was a kid - are always in awe of those of you who juggle multiple languages with ease, never mind speak it better than us natives.) I've been a following her in the news ever since and I just admire the hell out of her. I found this little collection of all her speeches up to and including her UK Parliament speech, on the bookstore counter, and snapped it up.
It's nothing fancy; just a small booklet containing all 11 of her speeches through 23 April 2019, and if read cover to cover (which I don't recommend), it's repetitive. But the message is powerful, and like it or not, it's dead-on accurate: our house is on fire; what we would never do to our own lawn, we're doing with impunity to the rest of the planet, and we're collectively living like a magic, 23rd-hour solution that will make everything ok again is going to miraculously fly out our asses.
Greta is making waves because she's 16 and she's the only one willing to stand in front of entire governments and actually say, with only a tiny bit more tact: you're all idiots and you're the generation that will always be known as those idiots who destroyed civilisation as we know it.
On a more first-world-problem note: this wonderful 16 year old was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize and even though she didn't win (and should have), I am still thankful I'm not a teen today. Life is hard enough as an adolescent, but now teens are nominated for Nobels; getting into Yale or Oxford suddenly isn't the acme of teen achievement any more. Yikes. show less
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